Timeline On Facebook Is Causing Privacy Concerns
Timeline will soon be available to everyone on Facebook. Even though many people haven’t had a chance to experience it yet, Timeline is causing quite a stir regarding the lack of privacy it would create. Some users love it, some hate it, but the bottom line is that it’s here and it’s going to stay. If you are a private person and don’t want all of your comings and goings broadcast for the virtual world to see, you need to know how to protect yourself by using your privacy controls.
The feature that most users are voicing privacy concerns about is “Maps”. This is the feature that makes your Facebook wall your life’s “map”. All of the information and photos you ever posted on Facebook will be used in creating your own personal “map”. Every update and photo will be added to your “map” along with the dates each of these were originally posted. Maps is one feature that you cannot avoid.
The Privacy Policy of Facebook states as follows: “We receive data from the computer, mobile phone, or other device you use to access Facebook. This may include your IP address, location, the type of browser you use or the pages you visit.” Before being allowed to use Facebook, you must agree to the Terms of Service, which includes the Privacy Policy. Once you agree, you are telling Facebook that you have read and understand everything in these policies. So, by agreeing, you are telling Facebook that you are agreeing to allow them to make your posts public.
If you or a friend uses a GPS enabled phone to take pictures at a party or some other event, then post them to Facebook, it will tag those picture to you. Since the time and location are on the picture, the world will be able to see what you are doing and when you are doing it. Even if you, personally, don’t send pictures in this way, you still aren’t safe. A friend of a friend could be posting these pictures and they will still show up on your map. No recent pictures of you? No problem. You map will still have old updates, posts and photos.
Your music preferences will also be made public if you are using Spotify. In the earlier versions of Spotify, users had no choice but to link their playlists to Facebook. Now, however, users could opt for “Private Listening” because of the many requests for it. One thing to remember is that if Spotify needs to restart, or if it’s not used that often, the user must choose “Private Listening” again because it will reset itself.
Privacy concerns also come from invitations that you must RSVP to through the Facebook link. Whenever you click on the “Will Attend” button, you could be causing your friends to be focused on for the same invitation. They will get a message asking them to “Attend” since one of their friends is attending. Even clicking on “Like” could lead to issues. Each time you “Like” something, your friends will be targeted to “Like” the same thing.
Reading articles through a link will also be posted to your wall. Since you usually have to “Allow” an app to access your information in order to read some articles, you won’t see the harm in this. But, did you know that once you hit “Allow”, you are allowing your information to be shared with that app for everything you read in the future also?
There is some degree of invasion of privacy with Timeline, but you can still use Facebook without too much trouble if you take the time to learn your options. Read all of the policies and understand your privacy controls so you can set them to where you would feel comfortable. And please…don’t be hasty when it comes to clicking on “Will Attend” or “Like”.
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